Bihari cuisine is a delightful blend of flavors, spices, and unique ingredients that make it stand out from other Indian cuisines. The cuisine of Bihar is largely similar to North Indian and East Indian cuisines, but it has its distinct characteristics. Bihari cuisine is highly seasonal, with watery foods such as watermelon and sharbat made from the pulp of the wood apple fruit consumed mainly in the summer months, while dry foods such as preparations made of sesame seeds and poppy seeds are consumed more frequently in the winter months.
Bihari cuisine is known for its unique dishes such as Litti Chokha, a baked salted wheat-flour cake filled with sattu (baked chickpea flour) and some special spices, which is served with baigan bharta, made of roasted eggplant (brinjal) and tomatoes. Dairy products are consumed frequently throughout the year, including dahi (yogurt), spiced buttermilk (known as mattha), ghee, lassi, and butter.
Bihari cuisine is also known for its meat dishes, with chicken and mutton being the most common. Fish dishes are especially common in the Mithila region of North Bihar due to the number of rivers, such as the Sone, Gandak, Ganges, and Koshi. Among meat dishes, meat salad, a popular dish made of mutton or goat curry with cubed potatoes in garam masala, is a favorite. Dalpuri, a salted wheat flour bread filled with boiled, crushed, and fried gram pulses, is another popular dish in Bihar.
Malpua, a sweet dish prepared by a mixture of maida, milk, bananas, cashew nuts, peanuts, raisins, sugar, water, and green cardamom, is a popular sweet dish of Bihar. Another notable sweet dish of Bihar is balushahi, which is prepared by a specially treated combination of maida and sugar along with ghee. Thekua, a sweet dish made of ghee, jaggery, and whole-meal flour, flavored with aniseed, is made during the festival of Chhath.
